May Postmortum

So I thought having a baby would mean I cook less - but I guess that's stupid, less going out means more cooking at home.

I have made a routine of making pizza dough and pasta every week.  I guess I'm done for the most part with ridiculous techniques, and really just focus on doing things well; and that's what you need; cease-less practice.   Not sure if it matters - lately I've been either experiencing a blandness in lots of my cooking; other times I get only harsh flavors.

All of the sudden we're on a schedule - Pizza Monday, Pasta Thursday, Asian on Friday, Grill on Saturday....when did this place turn into a cafeteria?

Maybe the new routine will mean I stop keeping track of all this, I'm starting to not have the time anyway...same thing every week, seasonal ingredients; weak cooking skills....no need to mark it down.

April Postmortem

So Gretchen had the baby - and we'll see how that changes what I'm cooking.  Already I find myself using the weekends to prepare for faster weeknight dinners.  Pizza and pasta dough gets made on Sunday, bread already got made once every week or two, I'm doing a lot more cooking beans, grains and greens ahead of time; you know all of those stupid hints for busy moms....I'm using them.

Well - I'd like to think that I'm just working more like a restaurant - they have all of that stuff prepped before service too, don't they?  A lot of it is just assembly.

March Postmortem

My projects turned out okay (corned beef) and bad (all sausages), and by then end of the month my everyday cooking had become over-seasoned and repetitious.

Hopefully April is better - but I don't think I'll be doing much cooking.

Februrary Postmortum

Everything keeps getting busier and busier.  Just want to get everything down so I can make comments later.

Made dinner for friends one last time before we have the baby - went sort of Asian.  I don't think I could make traditional or authentic Asian food, but when considering how to handle the root vegetables available right now, I thought about the ingredients and flavors I really like.  Plus - Korea really has a climate close to ours, and we can get pretty good Korean ingredients in our neighbor hood so it just kind of made sense.

January Postmortum

I told myself I wasn't going to post anymore - there's enough to do around here; but I keep losing track of what I've worked on.

A lot's happened since the beginning of 2011 - our stove broke completely, turning into a fire hazard; so that lead to a week of microwave/toaster oven cooking, and an unexpected cost.

The winter CSA is always a challenge - rutabaga are only one of two vegetables I really don't enjoy, spaghetti squash being the other.  I'm not giving up on either, there's got to be a way to make them better.

I'm just going to list what I can remember cooking and fill in as I go.

Weekend Evaluations: 'All I Want to Do is Drink Beer for Breakfast'

Things at work are crazy - no time for long winded explanations; but it's bothering me that I'm not keeping track.  So here are the last two weeks in one post.

Got the first winter share, all root vegetables all the time.  The list of what's included looks short, but we always get a lot of everything.

Weekend Evaluation: Greatest of All Time (aka Stop Saying 'Low and Slow')

We went out for lunch on Saturday (Red Hook Lobster Pound....this was fine), and dinner on Sunday (Paulie Gee's - always good - my favorite crust texture).  So not a lot going on here in terms of volume. 

Finally tackled the goat shoulder in the freezer. Next up: rabbit, and another ham.

Gretchen decided goat is gross- although she pretty much eats anything else; which to me makes no sense.  First of all, I'm pretty sure she's had it when I've gotten it out - and I mean what's the difference really. 

In fact goat is the world's most consumed meat. Plus, it tastes pretty much like lamb or mutton - and she likes lamb in general.

So I had to come up with some way to break it into portions so I could handle eating it; but I still wanted to roast some of it.  It did take forever to cook; but that's my fault.

Last regular CSA of the year this week - on to all root vegetables all of the time.